CO-FOUNDER/MANAGING PARTNER
RAJ CAPITAL
WHY: Joined family’s 50-year old swimwear business, working up to be CEO before selling to private equity. Coming off the sale, co-founded Revitate, a Newport Beach-based investment platform with brother, Alex, focused on real estate and sports investments. Along with family, Merage is co-owner of Sacramento Basketball Holdings, which owns the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, Golden 1 Center and Downtown Commons entertainment and sports district. Through their RAJ Sports subsidiary of RAJ Capital, the siblings won the competitive bidding process in 2023 to acquire the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League for $63M—a record for the league, according to The OregonLive. They were later awarded Portland’s new WNBA expansion team, the Portland Fire.
IN THE NEWS: Portland Thorns leads the NWSL in attendance averaging just under 20K per match, while the Portland Fire’s home opener had a sold out arena of 19,355, the highest attended expansion team home opener in history. Partnering with Kaiser Permanente to open a nearly 100K sq. ft. dual professional soccer and basketball performance center in greater Portland. Targeting August for public opening. Also partnered with Gray Media to launch Rose City SportsNet, a new women’s sports network that will broadcast Portland Thorns and Fire games and create shoulder content.
NOTABLE: Three-time Business Journal award winner, most recently honored with the Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award in April. Also won a Women in Business Award and Businesspersons of the Year Award along with brother Alex last year.
IN HER WORDS: “This is truly what I believe my purpose is because everything in my life has led up to this. I was in women’s consumer brands for so much of my career, then I was in social impact, and now I get to combine my experience with the love of sport.”
